


How Can I Not Love You

by buddyroll



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Best Friends, F/M, M/M, young rhink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 17:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9195185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buddyroll/pseuds/buddyroll
Summary: Rhett has always found an odd comfort in Link's company, and he begins to wonder if Link feels the same





	

**Author's Note:**

> How can I not love you,  
> what do I tell my heart?  
> When do I not want you  
> here in my arms?
> 
> How does one waltz away  
> from all of the memories?  
> How can I not miss you  
> when you are gone?
> 
> How Can I Not Love You -- Joy Enriquez  
> From the 1999 film "Anna and the King"
> 
>  
> 
> I'd had another copy of the same fic uploaded but I took it down and edited this one. If you read the other version, the differences are so vague that you won't miss out by not reading this one. Thanks to all who commented and left kudos!

They were two separate terms, “love” and “in love”, and they had two vastly different meanings, and Rhett had known that from the very beginning.

 

“'Course I love him,” he replied whenever questioned about his relationship with Link. “I've loved him e'er since we met. How could I not?  He’s like a brother to me. And besides; he’s always hurtin’ himself by mistake. He needs me to look after him.”

 

The other eleven- and twelve-year-olds would laugh at his response, the girls giggling and the boys making ridiculous faces, but none of that bothered Rhett. He knew his peers had their definitions mixed up, and he knew how he felt about his best friend. All that mattered to him was his friendship with Link, and no amount of sixth-grade teasing would ever change that.

 

Link, on the other hand (though he, too, loved his brother to death), hated how the other kids reacted to Rhett’s honest answer. The younger boy was far too shy to stick up for himself, but he felt strongly that he could change the way his friends saw him, and he vowed to prove them wrong.

 

***

 

The following summer, on his twelfth birthday, Link sat impatiently waiting for his mom to bring out the birthday cake. Rhett, sitting to Link’s right, grinned and nudged his buddy in the shoulder.

 

“Whatta ya gonna wish for?” he asked, half-joking.

 

“Aw, Rhett! You know I can’t tell you or it won't come true.” Link smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

 

“That’s okay, Link. No pressure. You don't have to tell your _best friend in the whole universe._ ”

 

Link stifled a laugh as his momma set the cake, fully decked with twelve burning candles, in front of her son. “Here you go, birthday boy,” she said as she placed a cake knife carefully on the table.

 

When the guests had all finished singing “Happy Birthday”, Rhett leaned towards Link and cupped his hand over his friend’s ear.

 

“Happy twelfth, buddyroll. Make a birthday wish.”

 

Link smiled a toothy grin as he heaved in a deep breath and slowly exhaled over the cake. Each candle flame flickered before disappearing into thin wisps of smoke that floated towards the ceiling, and the scent of melting wax wafted through the air.

 

***

 

It was nearly 7:00 pm, and all of the party guests had long since left. Rhett raced with Link out to the empty cow pasture where they sat so very often and talked about anything and everything that came to mind. As Rhett slowed his pace, Link took longer strides to match his speed with the older boy.

 

Finally, just as the sun was setting into the horizon, both boys arrived at a place they referred to as the “Speaking Rock”. It was a wide patch of dirt that sat near the riverbed of Buies Creek, and it consisted mainly of two things: a large boulder and a slightly smaller, flatter rock.

 

The larger rock, specifically, was known as the Speaking Rock, and the rules were as follows:

 

  * Whoever sat upon the Speaking Rock was allowed to say anything he wanted to ask, suggest, or get off his chest
  * He who sat upon the Lower Rock was to listen and think about what the other had said
  * When he who sat on the Speaking Rock was finished, he would stand up to indicate that it was time for the boys to switch positions



 

And, as everything else in their friendship, this system had always worked for the two, never failing either of them once since the first grade.

 

Link, still somewhat out of breath, turned to Rhett with an open mouth. “Can I go first this time?”

 

Rhett thought about it for a second. “Sure,” he said after a moment. “After all, it is still your birthday.”

 

“Thanks, man.” Link hopped onto the Speaking Rock as Rhett silently took his place on the Lower Rock and waited for his companion to continue.

 

Link looked down and crossed his dangling legs, his feet still about a foot or so above the ground, and he began slowly, unsure of how to state what he wanted to say.

 

“Well… um… I wanted to tell you… what I wished for… ya know, when I blew out my candles? I just... well, I guess I just think you deserve to know.”

 

He looked up, expecting to see a surprised Rhett, but instead coming face to face with his friend’s legs. His eyes continued upward as they followed Rhett, and eventually back down, settling on the boy as he sat to Link’s left. In the end, it was Link who was surprised, and his face twisted into a shocked and slightly annoyed expression. For the first time ever, one of them had betrayed the rules of the Speaking Rock.

 

But, of course, he let Rhett continue anyway.

 

“You wished for a girlfriend.”

 

Stunned at the fact that the blond knew something he’d never told him, the brunet stood up and whipped around to face the other boy.

 

“How’d you know that?” He could feel the color rushing to his cheeks.

 

“Come on, buddyroll, I’m your best friend. We’re so close with each other I can practically hear your thoughts. I know you hate what the kids at school think of us. I know you want a girlfriend to prove them wrong. I just don't understand why you don't ever talk to me about it."

 

Twelve-year-old Link found himself struggling to find an answer. “I dunno, Rhett, maybe it's cuz you got so much confidence that you ain't scared of what they say. Maybe cuz you're taller than me, or smarter than me, or more intimidating than me. Maybe cuz I thought you’d make fun of me for not suckin’ it up the way you always do.”

 

“Link, you know that ain't true. ‘Course I don’t like when they tease us. But they ain’t right, and you know that just as well as I do. Just because we love each other like family doesn't mean we’re _in love_ with each other.

“And I know my height can be intimidating, but I ain't much smarter than you, man. I mean, dontcha remember when I thought we should blow up that house with your cousin? Do ya really think _that_ was smart?! I coulda killed us both.”

 

“Yeah, I guess you're right. You ain't so smart after all,” Link said playfully.

 

“Hey!”

 

“Hay is for horses. Oh, maybe my Momma will let us have more cake if we’re back before dark!”

 

“Heck yeah, brother! Hey...Wait.” Rhett paused.

 

“What?”

 

Rhett smiled. “You never actually told me your birthday wish, did you?... Maybe it’ll still come true… ya know, since ya never said it aloud?”

 

Link grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, maybe. We’ll have to wait and see.”

 

He then took off into a full sprint, calling over his shoulder, “Race ya back, man!”

 

And with that, the two boys ran home as the last rays of the early summer sun set over North Carolina. 

 

***

 

Seasons passed, and year after year the two best friends continued to visit the Speaking Rock.

 

But it was one particular visit, many years later, that Rhett remembered nearly as well as that June first in 1990.

 

It was almost exactly ten years later; in the late May of 2000, the two returned home on a short break from their senior year of college. Their families were ecstatic when the boys returned home, and it was nice to see parents and aunts and uncles between Christmas break and Summer break.

 

But as always, they wanted some time to hang out and talk, just the two of them and the tall grass of the cow pasture.

 

“Twenty-two, man,” said Link as they approached the Speaking Rock. “I can't believe I’m gonna be twenty-two already. I mean, it felt like just yesterday we were sittin’ out here talkin’ about me wanting a girlfriend.”

 

“For goodness sake, forget that, Link. You're getting married! Let’s talk about _that_!”

 

Link smiled, a big, genuine smile, and though Rhett was extremely happy for Link, it broke his heart ever so slightly to think that this was the happiest his best friend had ever been.

 

“I’m so in love with Christy… she’s perfect, man. I don’t know what I woulda done if I’d never fallen for her.”

 

Rhett stood up from the grass where they'd been leaning against the familiar boulders, and he plopped himself onto the Speaking Rock. His lengthy legs had long since grown outstretched toward the Lower Rock, which Link now quietly sat on in slight confusion.

 

“Link… you know how back when we were in middle school, everyone used to tease us because we said we loved each other?”

 

Rhett stood up and switched places with the brunet.

 

“Of course. And I still love you, man. I always will.”

 

Once again, the duo exchanged seats.

 

“I love you too, buddyroll. You're like the little brother I never had.” He paused, scared to say what was really on his mind.

 

“I just… I dunno, Link, I mean… you’re with Christy and I’m with Jessie and we’re both so happy. And you’re getting married now, and I already bought a ring for Jess, and we’ve grown up too fast and I just wanna be kiddos again… and I don’t ever want our ladies, as wonderful as they are, to get in the way of our friendship.

“And you know, I’ve always known that there’s a difference between 'love' and 'being in love', but now… I don't know what changed, man, but I’ve experienced both love _and_ being in love… I mean _truly_ being in love… and I can't pinpoint when exactly that was… but I know when I look at you... that it was before I met Jessie…”

 

Rhett looked up at Link, who was staring patiently at the taller man. “Do you get anything I’m saying, buddyroll?”

 

And it was then that Link did the unthinkable, pulling the same trick Rhett had pulled so many years ago.

 

He stood up from the Lower Rock where he’d been sitting. For the second and only other time in the history of their friendship, one of the boys had broken the rules of the Speaking Rock.

 

He turned softly on his right heel and sat to Rhett’s side with great forethought. Link lowered his head against his brother’s bony left shoulder and wrapped an arm around his waist, and, as he leaned close to his best friend, he audibly whispered three single words:

 

 

“ _I’m starting to_.”

 


End file.
